style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px; float: left;"
alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64554">Leveling
a Mage through levels forty through sixty can be a
challenging affair. You don’t get as much spell power as you
do when you hit
level 60 and you don’t have the benefit of easy mobs that do
nearly no damage
like you for the first thirty to forty levels. Things become
increasingly
difficult and even with the rapid experience rate the grind will start
taking a
toll on you. Luckily there are a myriad of ways to take on encounters
to lower
downtime, increase the speed that you kill enemies, and provide you
with a fast
path to level 80.

Kiting
2.0

By now you should have a good grasp
on what kiting is, even
though you’ve probably never used it much. Previously we
discused kiting at length even if for the first thirty levels
you can pretty much spam
Frostbolt or Fireball and come out on top. At around level 35-40 kiting
becomes
a necessary effort in order to minimize damage to yourself from
stronger
enemies and most importantly to allow you the fastest possible spell
casting
speed. See, everytime you take a direct hit (from a spell, arrow,
sword, etc.)
your casting time is pushed back a little bit. Some abilities can
prevent that.

You may think that Frost Mages are
kings of kiting but
that’s a misnomer. While hurling massive chunks of frozen
doom at your enemies
will snare them, it doesn’t necessarily mean that
you’ll have to consistently
kite. Frost Mages at level 40 get an ability known as “Ice
Barrier” that
absorbs 438 damage and is recastable every 30 seconds. The barrier will
prevent
pushback as long as it holds (just like Mana Shield) so you can cast
normally.
Furthermore, Frost Mages have Icy Veins which completely stops
pushback. So
pushback isn’t necessarily a big issue for a Frost Mage.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/64555" target="_blank">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px; float: right;"
alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64555">However,
a Fire Mage has only one defense against pushback
and that’s Burning Soul and only stops pushback 70% of the
time. So if an enemy
is going to get more than a few hits in on you then you’re
going to probably
get your casting delayed. So it’s more important to a Fire
Mage who lets an
enemy get close enough to them to hit them to put some more distance
between
them. Of course, difficult enemies like anything colored Orange or
elites are
defiantly going to want to be as far away from the thin papery armor of
a Mage
as possible.

At level 40 there are some more
tricks you can do for
kiting. Let’s first go over when and where
you should kite and
when you should just stand your ground. If the enemy gets to
you and it’s
below 20-30% health and is just a regular mob then you should just
finish it off.
If it’s above 30% health then you’re going to want
to do some minimal kiting.
If it’s above 50-60% health, elite, or a very high level then
you’re going to
want to go all out.

The first trick is the same one we
learned before. When the
enemy gets to you simply cast
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells1-40#Frost_Nova_"
target="_blank">Frost Nova and stand back. This is
going to give
you enough time to cast another spell (which should be enough to finish
off any
near dead enemies). The next trick is the same thing, but with more
distance.
When the enemy is nearly at your toes spin your camera around behind
you. When
you’re done with your last spell push your character forward
(using your mouse
makes this easier), cast Frost Nova, and then
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells1-40#Blink_"
target="_blank">Blink. Spin your camera back
around and push your character forward again. Using the default
controls you
can spin your camera by clicking on your character and you can push
yourself
forward by mousewalking (pressing in both mouse keys). This will put a
few
yards between you and the enemy and allow you to go right back to
casting.

If the enemy is something that
you’re going to want to have
chasing you for a while then you’re going to want to have
Benny Hill playing and
utilize a spell known as
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells1-40#Cone_of_Cold_"
target="_blank">Cone of Cold. If you’re
a Frost Mage you’re not going
to have to worry about snares but Fire Mages will want to turn towards
their
enemy, use Cone of Cold, and then run/blink as far away before casting
another
spell. Using an instant snare like Cone of Cold will give you some
maneuvering
room.

Mastery
of the Flame

My personal favorite for leveling is
fire because you’ll
have the enemies dead before they get to you but it’s not the
most mana
efficient spec in the world. The goal of fire is to obliterate the
enemy before
it gets to say hello and if you can achieve that then you’ve
got the game beat.
You might spend more time sitting on your butt drinking down strangely
flavored
water and getting fat off of sticky buns but you’ll spend
less time staring at
the magic fly towards your enemies burning them to a crisp.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/64556" target="_blank">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px; float: left;"
alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64556">Before
we get into rotation and tactics, level 40 is a good
time to switch from Fire to Ice if you feel that you don’t
have enough gear to
pull off fire (a subjective feeling) or you’re just not
burning enemies before
they get to you. If this is the case then switch on over to Frost. At
level 41
you’ll get Summon Water Elemental which really makes it
worthwhile.

The rotation is the same as before.
Fire doesn’t add any
tricks along the way and until 80 you’ll pretty much be
following Pyroblast,
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells1-40#Fireball"
target="_blank">Fireball, Fireball, Fireball and
then
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells1-40#Fire_Blast_"
target="_blank">Fireblast. Easy to do, easy to
understand, and when you’re out of mana just sit and regen.
Skills like Blast
Wave and the rest will only drain your mana and get in the way. As long
as you
stick to the basics you’ll be speeding through to sixty.

Here are a few tips. Be sure to get
as far away from the
enemy as you can without taking too much time when you start your first
Pyroblast. If you’re careful you can get as many as two
Fireballs off and start
on a third before they reach you. If you’ve trained your wand
ability up you can
also wand enemies to death instead of using Fireblast to save yourself
some
time.

At level 51 you’re going to
get an ability known as “Living
Bomb” which will enter into your fire rotation if you so
choose. At level 51
it’s going to do a total of 918 damage or thereabouts, or one
Fireball and it
costs a good deal of mana. If you want to use it, feel free to, but
I’m not
necessarily going to recommend it on anything but the more difficult
enemies.

Rotation

Pyroblast

Fireball

Fireball

Fireball

Fireblast

Frosty Attacks

The frozen lands of Northrend may be
calling to you but
you’ll have 30 levels from level 40 before you can set foot
there. In the
meantime there are ways to streamline playing as Frost. At level 40
you’ll get
Ice barrier which is a major boon. It’ll keep damage away
from you, prevent
pushback (as discussed before), and extend your health. It costs mana
but the
cost is minuscule versus the speed and the already efficient use of
mana that
Frost has. So you’re going to want to start every battle with
it up. I suggest
binding it to a easy to use key so that you can press it often.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/64557" target="_blank">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px; float: right;"
alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64557">At
level 41 you’ll have access to something called
“Summon
Water Elemental”. This ability will summon a pet for a short
duration that
casts a Frostbolt and can freeze enemies to the ground. This ability is
vital
because a lot of your damage will start coming from critical strikes.
You
should have Shatter which will increase your critical strike chance by
50%
against frozen targets. You’ll add on your passive critical
strike chance on
top of that and then you’re going to have an almost sure fire
crit. The Water
Elemental can give you two free freezes while it’s up, tank a
little bit (but
it’s no Voidwalker), and do a good deal of damage. Overall
you’re going to want
to have it up as much as possible. Look into the Water Elemental glyph
while
leveling.

So if you’ve got your Water
Elemental up and your Ice
Barrier rocking then what do you do next? Well press CTRL-1 or the pet
attack
key to get your pet going against your target. Start casting Frostbolt
and
right before it’s done cast Freeze on the enemy. Your
Frostbolt should hit for
a critical strike (if not, oh well). Then spam Frostbolt until dead.
Like Fire
there isn’t much else in the Frost arsenal that’s
going to compare to Frostbolt
for single target damage.

If the target gets close to you and
has a good deal of
health then cast Frost Nova, step back or utilize a kiting technique
(from
above) and then cast another Frostbolt. If the enemy is weak and your
barrier
is holding then there is no reason at all to move, just use Frost Nova
for the
increased critical strike chance.

If you’re leveling using
the Arcane school then there isn’t
much for you to do outside of casting
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells1-40#Arcane_Missiles"
target="_blank">Arcane Missile and maybe fire off
an
instant Fireball every now and then. I highly discourage you from
leveling with
Arcane and instead suggest choosing Fire or Frost. If you’re
still wanting to,
then your rotation is simple. Use Arcane Missiles as much as you can
and use
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/mage/spells1-40#Mana_Shield_"
target="_blank">Mana Shield to help stop the
channeling pushback.

Rotation

Arcane
Missiles

Mage
Friendly Adventuring

Running around Azeroth in a robe (or
as some may call it a
dress) isn’t exactly the best idea you’ll have.
Most everything outside of a
city has sharp claws and ill intent so there isn’t much
respite to be had
outside of the safety of a city. Some zones are better than the others
for the
Mage, but the Mage isn’t nearly as frail as you’d
think.

40-50
Tanaris:
Tanaris offers one major neutral city and a ton of quests that are Mage
friendly. The entire Wastewander line and the pirates are all easy
humanoids
that are not very magic resistant. Finish the zone as much as you can
before
you move on because it’s like the STV of 40-50.

40-50
Feralas:
This is the zone of choice for Horde and does offer the Alliance a good
deal of
quests in the 40-45 range. Some of the enemies aren’t exactly
the best to kill
due to large amounts of wandering aggro, but it’s not the
worst zone to be in.
This is the place whenever Tanaris has nothing more to offer.

40-50
Hinterlands: Both the Horde and Alliance have major
encampments here and there
are a lot of quests to be had. As far as Mages go this is kind of an
iffy zone
due to how many enemies are always wandering around, invisible wolfs,
and the
entire troll city often causing you to pull more than you can chew.
Nevertheless, it’s a fantastic place to level.

43-50
Searing
Gorge: Not exactly the best place to level, but suitable.
If you need somewhere
to dip to then this is the place, but many of the enemies are rather
difficult
or come in pairs.

45-55
Blasted
Lands: A place few people visit these days, but has a few
easy quests that you
can drop in and pick up on the quick.

50-58
Burning
Steppes: Mark this place down as somewhere to go when you
need a few quests
extra to hit a level, but otherwise avoid. A lot of enemies here have
high fire
resistance and can be a problem.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/64558" target="_blank">
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 200px; height: 125px; float: right;"
alt="" src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/64558">
style="font-style: italic;">50-60
Plaguelands: Most of your quests to 60 will be in the
plaguelands (western and
eastern). They’re not going to ding you 60 alone, but
they’re perfect for the
Mage. Lots of undead create plenty of easy enemies to take care of and
a lot of
the quests are easy to do and can be made easier by the
Mage’s abilities.

55-60
Winterspring: When you’ve exhausted the
Plaguelands
then roll into Winterspring. While it’s a frozen area you
won’t find much
that’s immune or resistant to Frost. Mostly bears and
Furbolgs reside here
ready to maul at your papery defenses. Kind of a barren zone questwise,
but
enough to keep you busy.

55-60
Silithus: I wouldn’t even say Silithus is a
Hunter
friendly zone, much less a Mage. Many of the quests are difficult and
the enemies
swarm all over the place. If you reach 58-59 and end up here then you
may want
to head on into Hellfire.

58+
Hellfire Peninsula: Many people will say wait until 60
but if you’re stuck in a zone like Silithus you may want to
just step in, get
some gear, and then head back out until 60 or just start here.
I’ve started two
characters in Hellfire at 58 and had no problem getting sixty even
before the
experience boost. If nothing else just get some of the starting quest
gear and
head back out (making sure to set your bind point to save yourself a
walk).

Quests

Between 40 and 60 there is only one
quest for the Mage and
that’s into the Sunken Temple. There is no reason at all to
do that quest
unless you’re going to visit that instance. If
you’re curious about it, it
starts from your trainer which goes to Archmage Xylem in Azshara.
He’ll give
you a simple quest, do it, and then head into the Sunken Temple and
kill
Morphaz. Pick up the [Fire Ruby] since it can restore 1-500 mana. The
items
become nearly useless after sixty though.

Instances

What gear from where? Well there
isn’t much in the way of
amazing gear for casters like there are weapons for melee.
You’ll want to run
the Scarlet Monastery at 40 and get Whiteman’s
Chapeau.
After that a Zul’Farrak run for experience
and the various caster gear there should be enough to hold you off
until after
60. If you run any instances be sure to focus on the XP and not the
gear, since
spell damage isn’t going to come in high enough doses until
58 from Outland.

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About The Author

Get in the bush with David "Xerin" Piner as he leverages his spectacular insanity to ask the serious questions such as is Master Yi and Illidan the same person? What's for dinner? What are ways to elevate your gaming experience? David's column, Respawn, is updated near daily with some of the coolest things you'll read online, while David tackles ways to improve the game experience across the board with various hype guides to cool games.